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eternity

nouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ɪˈtɜːnɪti//
  • United States//əˈtɜɹnəti//
  • United States//ɪ-//
  • United States/[-ɾi]/

Existence without end, infinite time.

noun

  1. 1

    Existence without end, infinite time.

    Eternity has generally been considered as divisible into two parts; which have been termed, eternity a parte ante, and eternity a parte post: that is, in plain English, that eternity which is past, and that eternity which is to come.

    This theory regards creation as an act of God in eternity past.

    Those who like not the company of the saints on earth will get none of it in eternity; but, as godless company is their delight now, they will afterwards get enough of it, when they have eternity to pass in the roaring and blaspheming society of devils and reprobates in hell.

  2. 2

    Existence outside of time.

  3. 3

    A period of time which extends infinitely far into the future.

    Every niche was filled by a funeral urn, and by marble shapes that bent down in a pale eternity of sorrow.

    No limit / Not none that I can see / No limit / Not one, not one / Not one for you or me / No limit / Well, it can go until eternity, yeah / No limits to our love, girl

  4. 4

    The remainder of time that elapses after death.

    When the wind blows not, where, then, is the wind? / Or when thou art not living, where art thou? / What should the wind care for the hours of calm or thou for death? / Thy life is long, Eternity is short. / So short that, shouldst thou die and Eternity should pass, and after the passing of Eternity thou shouldst live again, thou wouldst say: ‘I closed mine eyes but for an instant.’

  5. 5

    informalA comparatively long time.

    It's been an eternity since we last saw each other.

    I had to wait in the station for ten days - an eternity.

Etymology

From Middle English eternyte, from Old French eternité, from Latin aeternitās. Displaced native Old English ēcnes.

Forms

plural
eternities
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).